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"What?"
As they listened to Xuanzi's account of the Soul Dueling Tournament, the elders of the Sea God Pavilion felt as though they were dreaming.
As the most powerful force in the soul master world of the Douluo Continent—renowned as the number one academy—Shrek Academy had been utterly crushed by the students of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy in the tournament.
Even without the presence of battle armor, the sheer abnormality of the Sun Moon Royal Team's soul power levels was hard to believe.
Three Soul Saint and a Soul Emperor—such a lineup was staggering!
Shrek's only Soul Sage was Su Tong, who had joined the inner court midway and had barely reached the threshold of level seventy before her entry.
By contrast, the Sun Moon Royal Team's three Soul Saint had been cultivated entirely by the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy and Sun-Moon Hall from the very beginning.
Moreover, their seemingly illogical soul ring combinations defied common understanding.
Clearly, this Soul Dueling Tournament dealt a devastating blow to Shrek.
Though the tournament hadn't concluded, the champion was already undisputed. Everyone had to acknowledge the Sun Moon Royal Team as the uncrowned kings.
And that wasn't all. In terms of the soul master cultivation system, Sun-Moon Hall had introduced a completely new concept: the soul spirit and its derived cultivation system.
Soul masters could now condense their own soul rings, resolving the age-old conflict between human soul masters and soul beasts. Furthermore, these self-condensed soul rings were said to have potential for further advancement in age. As their cultivation progressed, soul masters could more easily and effectively grasp their own soul rings, soul skills, and even their martial souls.
Beyond that, there was one crucial point that most soul masters either overlooked or dared not consider—the benefits Sun-Moon Hall claimed would come from cultivating the soul spirit system beyond the Titled Douluo level.
After all, most soul masters were grateful to reach the ranks of Soul Elder or Soul Ancestor. Few dared to dream of becoming Titled Douluos.
Some didn't even truly understand the essence of cultivation at the Titled Douluo level.
But the elders of the Sea God Pavilion at Shrek were different. They clearly understood that cultivation beyond the Titled Douluo stage was no longer about merely accumulating soul power—it required insight, a special kind of enlightenment. Whether it was understanding one's own abilities, soul power manipulation, or other forms of realization, only by breaking through these bottlenecks could one further merge their martial soul with their being.
At the Super Douluo level, this principle became even more pronounced.
Yet the soul spirit cultivation system promoted such integration from the very start—even at the soul master level—and did so consciously, in the form of specific cultivation techniques!
This was nothing short of a revolutionary overhaul of the soul master training system.
Compared to the advent of battle armor, the impact of the soul spirit cultivation system on Shrek's position was truly catastrophic.
Because no matter how one looked at it, battle armor still belonged to the realm of soul tools—a domain in which Shrek, or rather the three Douluo Kingdoms, were at a severe disadvantage. They hadn't even begun to develop the concept of humanoid soul tools, and the gap between them and the Sun Moon Empire was enormous.
However, the emergence of the soul spirit cultivation system directly reformed the realm of soul master martial soul cultivation.
That such a disruptive reform had been spearheaded by Sun-Moon Hall, rather than Shrek—the institution long respected and acknowledged as the number one academy in the soul master world—was staggering.
If Shrek could not swiftly absorb this system and innovate upon it, surpassing Sun-Moon Hall's progress, then within a century—not even a millennium—its position would be utterly lost.
And with that fall in status, student enrollment would inevitably suffer.
With declining enrollment, Shrek's traditional cultivation model would falter and gradually deteriorate.
In time, after being completely suppressed by the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy for several tournaments, Shrek might even struggle to compete with the royal academies of the three major empires.
Of course, all this assumed the three Douluo Kingdoms could survive the coming war.
If the Sun Moon Empire unified the continent, everything would only become more difficult.
Naturally, while the soul spirit cultivation system dealt a blow to Shrek's standing, the appearance of battle armor also inflicted significant damage—particularly in terms of raw power.
After all, the best guarantee of a faction's development was top-tier combat strength.
In the end, strength is the ultimate foundation of everything.
Battle armor was clearly the foundation of combat power.
"This time, we must make a concerted effort to develop our Soul Tool Department and crack the technology behind battle armor."
"With our current soul tool technology, we aren't capable of fully deciphering the secrets of battle armor. However, during our time in that strange valley, we received a special inheritance that included many soul tool techniques. We can try to first develop the potential foundational technologies from those."
"The Sun Moon Empire will undoubtedly promote and apply battle armor widely, and it's certain that battle armor will appear on the battlefield. As long as we can kill a battle armor master—even if there are self-destruction mechanisms—we can still attempt to dismantle and analyze it, accelerating our understanding of battle armor technology."
Of course, Qian Duoduo had one more thought he didn't voice: he believed that after the Sun Moon Empire unified the continent, the foundational technology behind battle armor would inevitably spread. That would be the Soul Tool Department's true opportunity—to fully grasp the basics and then attempt innovation. Before that, it was almost impossible for the Soul Tool Department to crack battle armor technology on its own.
Such thoughts were better left unsaid.
Taking advantage of the elders' current determination to channel academy resources into the vigorous development of soul tools was the wisest course.
To dampen the elders' resolve now would only hinder the Soul Tool Department's progress.
"By the way, what about Su Tong and the other students? And what about Fanyu?" Elder Lin came back to his senses and asked Xuanzi.
"They've been detained by Sun-Moon Hall, along with other contestants from various forces. I'm afraid they've all been taken into custody."
"…"
"Right, Shao Zhe, for the time being, find an excuse to go into seclusion. Don't make any contact with the outside world," Elder Song said, his expression complicated as he looked at Yan Shao Zhe.
"What happened?"
After Yan Shao Zhe and Xuanzi had returned directly to the academy from the Valley of Inquiry into Fate, they hadn't taken the time to investigate what had transpired following the Soul Dueling Tournament.
"Sigh…" Elder Song relayed the rumors that had already spread throughout the three Douluo Kingdoms.
"…"
"According to those who attended the tournament and leaders from small sects who've since returned, these 'rumors' seem, strictly speaking, to be not entirely untrue."
Yan Shao Zhe stood in stunned silence, his expression one of total disbelief.
How could this be possible?
His martial soul was the Radiant Phoenix!
As the bearer of the Radiant Phoenix martial soul, Yan Shao Zhe had never once imagined that he might be a descendant of an evil soul master—especially one of such notorious evil.
The Radiant Phoenix! Whether it was the phoenix's flame, which inherently restrained evil forces, or the light attribute of his martial soul that countered darkness, there was no way he could possibly be connected to an evil soul master.
If anything, he should be the nemesis of evil soul masters.
Yet today, he had learned a shocking secret about his origins.
"How could this be possible?"
Yan Shao Zhe kept murmuring in disbelief.
He felt that Elder Song had to be joking. He stared at Elder Song, hoping the elder would laugh and say it was all a joke meant to lighten the mood.
But Elder Song remained deadly serious, and the other elders around them were equally solemn.
"I understand. I'll go into seclusion and focus on cultivation. I'll also step down from my position as head of the Martial Soul Department."
"That won't be necessary," Elder Song said, stopping him at once.
"We've watched you grow up. We know your character well. This is merely a matter of your origins, not a reflection of your own morality. It's not as if you've committed evil deeds or slaughtered innocent people."
Yan Shao Zhe was a level 97 Super Douluo and had served as the head of Shrek Academy's Martial Soul Department for many years. His contributions to Shrek were immeasurable.
Now was not the time to let him grow disheartened.
Negotiations with Di Tian had gone surprisingly smoothly. Su Yu and Xue Di returned together to the Extreme North, while Huo Yuhao headed back to Sun-Moon to prepare for his integration into the Soul Engineer Legion.
Half a month later — Extreme North.
"The position is still shifting, but overall, the distance has definitely decreased."
Su Yu could feel an even deeper and stronger connection through the power of destiny.
Using causality between himself and the Abyss as a basis for deduction had become an excellent way for Su Yu to practice manipulating the power of fate.
Unlike the use of fate within a single plane, Su Yu's deductions now involved the intertwining of fate between two different planes, allowing him to make rapid progress in both understanding and mastering this force.
While honing his skills with the power of destiny, Su Yu did not neglect his personal cultivation.
Although the core region of the Extreme North was a paradise for ice-element soul masters or soul beasts, it didn't offer Su Yu any direct advantages.
However, his visualization technique could harness the environment here for his benefit.
Visualization was, after all, a technique of the spiritual realm. When combined with the real-world environment, its efficiency was vastly enhanced.
Soul power cultivation, spiritual power training, and the construction of his battle armor's core formation—
Su Yu left no aspect of his development unattended.
In addition, he used the harsh, frozen climate of the Extreme North to push his physical limits, stimulating his potential and refining his qi and blood.
Beyond his own cultivation, he was also nurturing his Reincarnation Grass.
In just three short months, he had raised the Reincarnation Grass's cultivation from 100,000 years to the 200,000-year level!
This was an astonishing pace, even in the entire soul beast world.
In the Divine Realm, Su Yu had used the Life Source Pool to replenish the life energy he had previously consumed from his stockpile of Vital Gold.
What's more, the replenishment came in the form of Life Source Liquid, which was of slightly higher quality than the life force stored in Vital Gold.
Now, Su Yu was using this Life Source Liquid to nourish the Reincarnation Grass, allowing it to leap by 100,000 years in cultivation in record time.
Even the fierce beasts in the Star Dou Forest, who absorbed the massive life force of the Ice Jade Scorpion Emperor, didn't experience such absurd speed in their growth.
Yet Su Yu managed to cultivate the Reincarnation Grass at such an extraordinary, seemingly impossible rate.
If Di Tian and the others learned of this, one could only imagine how they would react.
Of course, the key factor here was compatibility.
For soul beasts, especially fierce beasts, unmatched power and cultivation level could lead to disaster—it could mean a quicker death.
The beasts of the Star Dou Forest had to ensure that as their cultivation level rose, their control over their power increased at an equal or even greater rate.
Otherwise, by the time the next heavenly tribulation arrived, their combat strength wouldn't have improved much, yet they would have to face the tribulation just because they had reached the threshold. In that case, the outcome would be grim.
For the Reincarnation Grass, however, there was no such concern.
The Reincarnation Grass was a life form birthed from Su Yu's own martial soul, guided into existence by him. He had repeatedly used Martial Soul Possession with the Necro Saint Soul Grass to steer and regulate the life-and-death forces within it.
This gave him absolute control over the Reincarnation Grass.
He could even possess it with his martial soul and infuse it with his comprehension of runes.
Su Yu could continue refining and enhancing this life form he had personally created.
"Two hundred thousand years."
Su Yu checked the time and felt that the current pace was unsatisfactory.
In order for the Reincarnation Grass to undergo nine transformations before evolving into a soul spirit, it would take at least two more years.
Not to mention two years—he already felt he was on the verge of breaking through to level 80. If he stayed in seclusion for another five or six days, he could probably reach level 80.
But waiting for another two years at level 80?
Su Yu couldn't afford to wait.
"I still need to find a way to speed up the Reincarnation Grass's growth."
The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eyes seemed like the solution.
Su Yu decided that once the Reincarnation Grass survived this tribulation, and after his teacher completed the space detection device and sent it over, he would head to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eyes.
"My teacher mentioned a month ago that the core formation had already been constructed. It should be on its way by now, right?"
Even though they were half a continent apart, Su Yu was still able to communicate with Kong Deming.
Using a special Soul Guidance device, they could transmit the most basic symbols and establish a language translation system, which allowed for rudimentary remote communication.
However, to make the Soul Guidance device resonate over such a long distance and transmit messages required immense skill from the users.
Both Su Yu and Kong Deming naturally met the requirements.
But for ordinary soul masters, this kind of communication was impossible to popularize.
The process of making Soul Guidance devices accessible to the masses had hit another bottleneck. During their communications, Su Yu had also proposed a plan to Kong Deming to establish a communication network.
Kong Deming agreed to the idea but mentioned that to lower the usage requirements, large-scale infrastructure development would be needed.
With the ideas Su Yu provided, Sun-Moon Hall launched a new project—the Soul Guidance Communication Facility Development Project.
This project could produce results quickly, though it might not reach the level of civilian use in a short time, it would be sufficient for military applications.
As a result, both Sun-Moon Hall and Xu Tianran quickly approved the proposal.
Back to the main topic.
The Reincarnation Grass contained both life and death energies, which circulated and transformed into a balanced flow.
Boom!
A massive thundercloud began to gather in the sky.
Although it wasn't the first time Su Yu had witnessed a heavenly tribulation cloud, he remained vigilant and didn't waste the opportunity.
Until he fully understood the mechanics of the heavenly tribulation, every tribulation could offer some valuable insights.
The Thunder Hell Vine in Su Yu's Sea of Spirit became active, requesting to be released to devour the tribulation's power.
The last time the Reincarnation Grass evolved, Su Yu had worried that allowing the Thunder Hell Vine to consume the tribulation's power might interfere with the transformation, so he hadn't let it absorb the energy, thus wasting the opportunity.
This time, the Thunder Hell Vine couldn't hold back.
"Go ahead, but since your presence will make the tribulation stronger, you'll need to bear your own share of the pressure. You also need to help the Reincarnation Grass, ensuring it doesn't suffer additional strain due to your involvement."
The Reincarnation Grass was already evolving at an incredibly fast pace, and with the tribulation strengthening, Su Yu was worried that things might go wrong.
Of course, the Reincarnation Grass's rapid growth wasn't just due to the lack of matching problems on Su Yu's end. The Thunder Hell Vine was also a crucial factor.
Time for the Heavenly Tribulation Regulator.
As long as the Thunder Hell Vine could handle it, the Reincarnation Grass would be fine!
And as long as the Thunder Hell Vine could bear it, Su Yu would be able to endure as well.
(End of chapter)